The subject invention relates to a method an apparatus for remote resetting of postage meters and similar systems. More particularly it relates to the use of facsimile communications in postage meter resetting.
A system for the remote resetting (or recharging) of postage meters is marketed by the assignee of the present application under the trademark "Postage-By-Phone" and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,923; to: Eckert et al. Briefly stated to recharge a meter an operator obtains an "access code" from the meter. This code represents an encryption of at least a "control sum" and the meter serial number, where the control sum corresponds to the total amount of funds with which the meter has been charged to date. This access code is generated by the meter and may be read from the meter display upon operator request. The operator then communicates the access code, the amount by which the meter is to be recharged, an account number against which the recharge amount is to be debited, and the meter identification number to a remote data processing center. At the data processing center the access code is validated and a "combination code" (sometimes hereinafter "recharge code") is generated as a function of at least the amount by which the meter is to be recharged and the meter identification number. This recharge code is communicated to the operator who enters the amount together with the recharge code into the postage meter through its keyboard. The postage meter then validates the recharge code and increments the descending register of the meter by the amount requested. (As is well known in the postage meter art the descending register of a postage meter is decremented by the amount of postage, and the ascending register is incremented by that amount, each time the meter prints an indicia. The control sum is thus the sum of the contents of the descending and ascending registers. The meter is of course designed so that it will not print postage if sufficient funds are not available in the descending register.)
Generally, the operator communicates with the remote data processing center through a "touch-tone" phone to enter information directly into a data processing system at the remote center using well known "Touch-Tone" techniques for data communication. ("Touch-Tone" is a trademark of AT&T Corporation for transmission of data over the telephone lines using unique tones generated by the keypad of a telephone.) A voice synthesis system at the remote center then communicates the combination code to the user over the telephone, who then manually enters it into the postage meter. In the event a "Touch-Tone" telephone is not available the user may communicate with the remote data processing center through an operator.
While "Postage-by-Phone" has been highly successful and is widely accepted for the recharging of postage meters a transaction as described above requires the operator to enter approximately 60 key strokes. This large amount of data entry required of the operator increases the possibility of mistakes.